In the Cards
by elfenlied1012
Summary: Eli is invited by Nozomi to a legally grey birthday party. Things happen. A birthday fic for Savvymeme


_You, me, Athletics Department pool, Birthday extraveganza, 12 AM. You bring the cake and your lovely self!_

With two hours notice, and no response from Nozomi after a mountain of confused counter texts, Eli arrived where she was bid. Straight from work Eli made way to the uni's athletics building, stopping only for a moment to nab a chocolate cake as requested. Wasn't too far a walk to get to the university blocks, even with the Red Line down this late. Only a little creepy with each building dark and devoid of life, shadows pressed against the windowed towers.

Except athletics.

The top floor of athletics glowed dimly like a lighthouse built of steel and fluorescents. A beacon maybe, something left on when it wasn't suppose to, the work of a tricky girl with purple hair more like. Eli took in a moist breath of air, holding the slightly jostled remains of a cake under one arm and a bag stuffed with sweaty work clothes locked up, an unfortunate time sealed putrid bomb. She barely had time to change, blonde hair still tied up into the same ponytail from waiting, now an unfortunate grease trap in the June heat. _Time to face birthday girl's machinations._

First level, no one outside of the walls, glass plastered with an image of every athlete this university ever nabbed. None of them Eli could recognize aside from Umi's face pressed against the stairwell, the underside one bloated image of her in the traditional archery gear. She looked so confident, eyes sharp arrow tips aiming for success, daring you to do the same. Her poor followers, if only they knew what a dork their star athlete was.

Climbing up the Umi stairway, guided by the weak ambient safety lights and her own talent at night vision, the second floor held no surprises. Nozomi's trap not tripped, not yet. Must have been in the cards to pull an elaborate level of bull, suspicions ticking the gage more and more as taped on signs guided Eli to the elevator. Who on Earth throws a reverse surprise birthday party?

The traveling faraday cage opened as soon as she touched the controls, light and sound breaking free. Inside, the single bar lamp flicked on along with the soothing, if boring, sounds of slow jazz. Scattered inside were the average mass of flyers, the centerpiece of this paper amalgamation a muse leaflet with a big sharpied four over Eli's face. After all the time Honoka spent printing these, you'd think she'd have the decency to ruin some other indie group's poster. Message was clear: pool now.

The athletic building built in city center, hold a looping track on floor three, a full gym on two. Fourth and final was an indoor tennis court, but more popularly an olympic pool and a translucent ceiling. Didn't take a pristine eye for beauty to get the appeal. As soon as the elevator opened, a house of glass greeted Eli, the ceiling's see through patchwork of low lighting and metal reinforcement holding the view in place. City lights ripped the stars from the sky, but the moon stood defiant between two of their university's taller academic buildings. It seemed closer, a touch more tangible, from where Eli stood on the tennis court. From where she was dumped, the sight wasn't the only sense tipped off. Sloshing of water, gentle strokes from the wall beyond. and a voice.

"Elicchi! I heard the elevator!" Nozomi. Eli reflexively sighed, lips curling despite herself. No matter how silly this was, her voice was always something pleasant on the airwaves.

"You know, I could be security kicking you out!" Eli skipped her way to the university pool, sneakers squeaking along the damp floors between the rooms, the only wall a border to protect the tennis players from falling on their asses. Inside was as expected, a single score post and an olympic swimming pool stretching from one side to another. Held to the standard, a perfect rectangle with the red and yellow buoy borders still out on the far side. Closer to Eli rested the pool's only furnishing, two beach chairs and a plastic white table pressed right up against the other side of the water line. Swimming up to it, of course, Nozomi.

"Wasn't in the cards," she dismissed, lips parting just barely, the tiniest grin, "did you bring me my birthday tribute?" Nozomi pulled her body up against the pool, arms and chest over the edge, the pivot pressed against her belly. It reminded Eli of old European artwork of mythical mermaids beckoning passing boats. This time sea shells were replaced with a plain white bathing suit, fish scaled tail with strong curved calves and elegant legs. This sea siren sang for cake rather than sailers.

"Chocolate dessert, picked out just for you," Eli delivered, placing the pre-cut cheap grocery cake by the pool's edge, "Where is the rest of the club?" The blonde wasn't fully convinced they weren't hidden somewhere in this empty complex, part of another elaborate ruse.

"Chocolate? I think that's your favorite," Nozomi groaned without a hint of sincerity, "Muse won't be joining us, the main party is tomorrow." Pulling her water logged hair back, Nozomi pulled more of herself onto the pool's edge, reaching out and knocking away the cake's top plastic. From above, Eli got a rare view of her full back, strong shoulders developed from her secret athletic prowess. Swooping down the spine, she had the smoothest skin, ending at the rear, a sight to— "Elicchi, feed me!"

"What?" Eli's vision snapped back to an appropriate focus, Nozomi's green eyes firing off a warning flare with a wink. _Did she catch me?_ Eli asked herself, feeling embarrassed without even confirmation, _pull back a little bit, Eli._

"What's on your mind there, you seem distracted?" Nozomi asked, one side of her lips curving up just a little. She damn well knew what it was. "But seriously, feed me, my fingers are all pruned!" Nozomi lifted up her hands as proof, letting her body spill back into the aqua waters, her digits coarse lined jungle vines, an acceptable excuse.

"Come out and I will. If I sit down my pants will get wet," Eli explained, tossing her bag onto the table, narrowly, and thankfully, missing the card patiently set up.

"Then take them off," Eli punctuated her friend with a cough, "You're going to be swimming in your undies, might as well lose the pants now." Nozomi was excellent at making herself sound dirty while trying not to sound dirty.

"Who said I was going to swim? It's against the rules," Eli barked, a little annoyed to catch her vice president breaking into the Athletic Department just for a casual swim. Nozomi's expression didn't shift an inch. She kept sure of herself, kept smiling.

"Because I'm the birthday girl and you adore me?" For the cabinet's second, she was a much better politician. Just terribly great at making Eli do the exact opposite of what she intended, the story of their involvement with Muse right there.

"If I get in trouble—" Eli grumbled, tossing her thin leather jacket aside, a heat trap anyways.

"It's not in the cards, I promise," Nozomi cut her off, watching from the water, pacified by her victory. Eli let a sigh escape her lips, venting frustration as she took off her shirt. Nozomi was quick to greet that with a low whistle. "Whoo, go girl." Nozomi kept her praises hushed, but Eli sure felt like she was being catcalled.

"Excuse you, this is not a show!" The blonde tossed the top onto the beach chair, fighting all temptation to aim that volley right at Nozomi's dumb fucking grin. This was hardly the most revealing they'd seen each other in. Sure, Eli's black bra and undies set were a little more stylish than what she'd want to dive into a pool with, but it was hardly more revealing than the vice's swimsuit. It was just her comments that made the whole thing embarrassing enough to give a red hue.

"I appreciate the private viewing, thank you," Nozomi commented once Eli's hand shredded jeans got tossed on the pile. This was a disaster waiting to happen, least she had the foresight to bring two towels, both on the chair. "Don't you feel freer?"

"I feel colder," Eli spat back, sitting at the water's edge, nearly jumping when she felt pool water dampen right through the butt of her panties. This experience in one word: ill-conceived. "Now eat your cake." Pre-cut into hand held treats, Eli held the fudge flavored sweet out to her pet mermaid. Nozomi, always quick to make it weird, swam over and pulled herself up by her wet hands. On Eli's thighs. Bare thighs.

"Delicious," the vice pres announced after biting down on the first piece, right out of Eli's hands. Every part of the blonde she touched busted out in a red tint, allergic to the advances. "Thank you very much, you are the absolute best."

"I try to be," Eli replied flatly, "do you want more?" Nozomi answered by locking herself around the other's legs once again, strong arms to pull her up, mouth open, groaning an 'ah' sound. _Are you trying to kill me?_

"There." Eli slid another little piece of cake into her mouth, hoping it would free the vice's grip around her legs. Sure, there had been times she had wanted to feel those biceps, chest, just her, but through the legs was just not ideal. Nozomi disagreed.

"Thank you!" She kept right where she was, happy to rest her chin on Eli's knee, clinging to the limbs like a navy raft, content in this dangerous posture.

"So," Eli mumbled, trying to find something to take them both out of this moment. The sky gave her some solace. More towers, less stars, but always the moon, a crescent that night. "Why the pool? Why just us?" She kind of knew the second.

"I come here a lot, I just don't tell you," Nozomi admitted, turning her head on its side, resting her cheek between the legs. "You're kind of a stickler for rules. Swimming is actually a big hobby of mine." It showed. That, along with the dance work they did, built her up quite a bit, despite her absolutely feminine form her arms were solid throughout, legs thick enough to lift them both, and Nozomi's core showed off her abs whenever her body contorted any which way. Eli was very familiar with all the finer points of her vice's body.

"Rules exist for a reason," the student union president lectured reflexively, "Why not join the swim team if you want to use the pool?"

"Can't," Nozomi concluded, letting go with one arm to quickly brush through the rivers of purple hair, turning almost darker in the water, split like some beautifully colored seaweed at the pool's surface. "It would interrupt my naps."

They both laughed, resistance was fading, and soon, despite herself, Eli's hand reached out to comb through those soaked purple threads. Nozomi didn't stop it, leaning into the roaming hand and closing her eyes, completely trusting the pres. "Considering it's your birthday, I won't rat you out," Eli offered, the texture of Nozomi's hair cold, wet, but smooth like silk ribbons, "But you should be worried, if they catch you."

"They won't, I only come when the cards say it's the right night," the elder girl offered sleepily, content with her supernatural defense. Eli sighed hard enough that Nozomi could easily feel it through her legs.

"Do you really believe your cards can say anything for certain?" Eli question stirred her sleepy guest, Nozomi lifting her head so they could be eye to eye. She kept letting that roaming hand comb through her hair though. That was not ending anytime soon.

"Maybe, or maybe it just gives me certainty, which lets me make my fate certain," she offered, like a riddle carved up just for Eli.

Tilting her head to think, the blonde girl came to no conclusion. No deck, no matter how magic or stacked, could not really set their lives down a predestined path. Human agency defied that. Wouldn't the confidence they bring alter the prediction right there? Eli realized maybe this was approaching the point. "Explain."

"Alright. For example, today I pulled the fool. Do you know what that tells me?"

"No," Eli answered, surprised Nozomi even bothered to ask. Tarot was her thing and definitely not the blonde's.

"It means this year, I'm just starting out on a big journey—"

"Nozomi, I know for a fact you're not traveling this summer," Eli intruded into the explanation, annoyed by magic's inaccuracy, or maybe just uncomfortable at the thought of Nozomi up and leaving based on the flip of a card.

"A metaphoric journey, Eli. An alteration, a change," the vice pres clarified, shaking her head back and forth, chin resting like a pivot on the separation between the blonde's legs. The sensation both tickled and embarassed her. "Nothing bad happens on the first day of an adventure, dark act, part two. I'm not getting kicked out of this pool. More importantly, lets me feel confident incase something bad happens. Also, since I'm immune to bad things today, it gives the courage to do this."

"What?" Eli asked. Nozomi's eyes sharped down to knives, her arms grip tightened. Oh no, this was a trap, this whole position was a trap! Nozomi was the devil. "Please no!" All those athletic muscles snapped into action, pushing off the wall with her legs, and lifting up Eli by the thighs. Nozomi tossed and flipped her head first into the pool. The blonde tried to scream syuka, but water clogged her mouth when she did, still locked into a somersault at the bottom of their false sea.

At least, Eli reasoned, she wasn't sweaty anymore.

"What the hell!" Eli shouted soon as she spat out her first breath at the surface. Nozomi was already there, laughing like the villain she always was. _That snake!_ Paddling in a panic, the blonde churned all the water around them, just trying to keep breathing for the moment, eventually finding homeostasis with subtle kicks and full lungs. "Why?"

"Like I said, start of an adventure!" The older girl was a much more graceful swimmer, keeping herself afloat with a few flicks of a wrist and controlled breathing. Despite the way she moved slicker in water than most men on the dry earth, this trick marked her a devil's siren, not a mermaid.

"An adventure to the morgue!" Eli put all her strength into one wave, months of dance and years of being a ballerina all behind one rush of water. It didn't amount to much. Dunking underneath, the fox avoided the rippling onslaught, though if keeping from getting wet was the goal Eli found it quite paradoxical. "Get back here!"

Nozomi listened, rushing to the surface from the bottom, carrying with her a surge of water, the aquatic equivalent of an upper cut. There was no counter, the Russo-Japanese war all over again. "This is just self-defense!" Eli tried to say something back, but the recent assault clogged her mouth with about a pool's worth of liquid chlorine. Facing defeat, Eli leaned back, hair splitting in the water, but getting a moment to breathe, to think. A new strategy had to be adopted. A new age in pool based warfare.

"Nozomi?"

"Giving up so soon, Elicchi?" The president heard the ripples as her opponent approached, doggy paddling right into her trap. _Now._ Speed over power, Eli flailed her arms sending splash after splash like a machine gun with a lake of ammunition. Nothing better than eyes full of stinging chlorine to establish dominance! "Come on, too much, too much!" the vice grunted between face fulls of vengeance, hands too busy blocking to launch a counter attack.

"I only accept unconditional surrender!" Eli felt the competitive rush that helped her dominate school elections spread through her system. Why let up now of all times, even if her arms began to ache a little? What else could all that endurance training have lead to, but this victorious moment? Nozomi kept on the defensive, kicking herself closer to the blonde between her rapid splashes. Just like every trick Nozomi ever pulled, Eli noticed her cleverness just a moment too late. _Damn her._

Dropping her feet at the bottom of the shallow end, Nozomi found her spring board to charge, right into the waves, into Eli, a human torpedo, primed and ready, launched to sink them both. "Bonzai!" Nozomi's arms caught Eli's shoulders, the stronger, heavier, more muscled Nozomi forced them both down, twin girls sinking into the depth, struggling against one another and becoming more entwined as they fought. Hands locked together in stalemate, flowing hair framed both their submerged vision. Only sights Eli could parse were strains of purple and yellow between the chlorinated blue, but also her smile. Nozomi's lips shut tight to hold in air, stretched and just barely uplifted, cheeky, happy. The lights, they weren't so dull beneath the water, and oh god, did they make her glow, glow beautiful.

Caught in light, in hair, in sinking, Eli didn't notice, between the microseconds of thought, Nozomi stopped pushing, and started pulling. Pulling them to the surface, pulling the blonde to her, pulling Eli into a kiss.

That she did notice. Noticed immediately, and reacted with an embarrassing loss of breath in an explosion of bubbles rising with them to the surface. By the time Eli broke the water line, sucking in the fresh air, the vice pres was flipped over, a laughing, floating, sneaky— _god, that kiss was beautifu_ l.

"I can't believe you spit bubbles at me!" Nozomi complained and cackled in equal measure. With a one handed backstroke against the water's surface, she approached Eli, never abandoning the comfort of floating.

"You kissed me!" Eli shouted, unable to match her grace, just churning the water with her legs to stay afloat, watching Nozomi circle her like a shark, coming closer with every stroke, "How exactly am I supposed to react to that?"

"I don't know," the circling stopped as their shoulders met, Nozomi turning her body into her friend, partner? Right now Eli didn't know what they were. "Like this?" She offered an example, breaking the thin air tight seal between them. Her lips tasted like pool water, but the rush was real, the hormones pumping, driving, cracking the stoic persona Eli liked to use. Honestly, it didn't matter what her lips did or didn't taste like, it was addictive all the same. A well that only made Eli thirstier.

How they managed to stay afloat shocked the blonde, their legs churning a panic mill, bumping up against each other, but never letting up. With that sort of rushed haste, in a hurry to get somewhere and to something, Nozomi finally pulled her lips away. Eli hated it, just getting use to the texture of her swimmer's tongue, but before Eli could even form a coherent thought to complain, Nozomi found a new place to work, teeth brushing against the exposed wet skin of her neck.

More than just teeth traveled against Eli's skin, hands too. One grabbed her from the back, forcing the pair together, and another explored the space under Eli's damp bra. This wasn't the first time Nozomi grasped her that way, not even the first time against her bare breast, albeit tangled in a bra, but there was a difference between touch as playful punishment and purposeful pleasure, both poignant and powerful. The sensation jolted Eli's nerves, but also her sense. Calm confidence, if completely thirsty for more, won out. "Wait—"

"It's okay. I've changed my mind, I'm sorry," Nozomi whispered into Eli's ear, kissing the lobe to punctuate, but to her credit, the exploring hand became still. She so wished it wouldn't, but the pres thanked god she listened. Too much touch would drive her stupid.

"Nozomi, we talked about this last time, I thought you said—" Eli recounted the memory, the confession, the kisses, the hot breath and cold touches. She remembered the decision, too, the call for status quo. They were in love, or at least Eli was, but not, not together, no.

"I was scared of losing, you know, what we had for the last, god, forever now," Nozomi explained, pulling her hand out and giving them both some space to breath, think and not just dissolve into each other like hormone teabags, "but like the cards said, I shouldn't be keeping things the same. We should try it. Wisdom isn't earned from inaction."

"You're changing what you want over a draw of a card?!" Eli could stand a large amount of hocus pocus bullshit. An extreme amount. Hell, university functions were occasionally decided by Nozomi's predictions, but this, this was them, their fate. Laminated paper didn't decide her future, their future.

"Eli, I told you, certainty is not in the cards," Nozomi admitted, her lips turning sour and crooked for a moment, never the best at looking anything but cool, "I know I'm team mom half the time, and I seem like I have all my shit together, but I can be a real mess, and it's nice to feel sure of something, of anything. It's just the confidence they give me. I make new friends easier, helps me do something stupid and fun, or to go after what I always wanted when I'm too petrified to try."

That wasn't news, not to Eli, but the reminder was rare, important. There wasn't much to say. Nozomi was the giver of advice. What do you tell to the woman who whispers every reassurance you've ever heard? It seemed, to Eli, you hold her hand, wet and pruny as it might be. "There is absolutely no reason to be scared of me." A declaration, signed in kicking swirls of water and a tight grip.

"You know the fool card? How he's always about to walk off a cliff?" Nozomi joked, hands examining the skin of her swim partner's forearm, feeling out the warmth.

"You're not a fool," Eli countered, word's tight strung with confidence born not from cards, but knowing herself, knowing the facts, knowing them.

"I'm a fool for you," Nozomi shot back, smirk on her lips and emerald eyes clear, not hazy from fear, not for right now. The flirting, despite its obvious nature, did manage to spread something dark along Eli's cheeks, though she kept her composure. This time Nozomi was gentle, her hands reaching for a spot on those pink marks, holding that confident countenance, that ever popular stylish expression of determination, right in the palm of her hands. "So what do ya say?"

"Yes."

The next kiss didn't catch Eli by surprise, ready and willing to receive, to give. To be with her. _Happy birthday,_ she wanted to whisper, but her tongue brushed against teeth and wet lips instead. This time no taste of pool water, just relief. Eli didn't realize their agreement to stay apart had been slowly drowning her all along. Hand's running down Nozomi's hair, the spinal columns, it was like breathing again, straight through the skin.

"When did you become such a good kisser, Elicchi?"

"You've given me a lot of time to prepare," the imagination, however tasty, did not capture it. The feeling of Nozomi laughing, the shudder in her body of a giggle felt by the palm of her hands. Details like that didn't form while day dreaming.

"I should grab your boobs more often," she joked, "only the best has come of it so far."

"Don't," Eli muttered, focus diverting to Nozomi's muscled shoulders, revenge bites along her clavicle could pay back for the red splotches on Eli's neck.

 _Ding_. Elevator.

"Shit!" Nozomi shouted in a whisper, grabbing Eli she swam them both over to the pool edge, surprisingly stealthy as her arms and legs wadded the waters with a master's talent. The blond decided if they managed this without being expelled, the two of them were going to have a long discussion about the opportunities the swim team might provide.

"What do we do?" Eli begged, heart trying to smash its way out of her chest and escape. Nozomi scanned over the water's edge, green eyes spreading way too wide for comfort. _Oh my, no._

"Down, don't move." Only order Eli needed. Both slammed their bodies against the pool's ledge, submerged as far as they could go, the tips of their noses and heads sticking out like snorkels on desperate divers. Student union president getting caught in her underwear, swimming in the athletic's pool after hours with her lesbian lover was not exactly the expulsion story she felt like giving to grandma.

`"What the hell is this?" an older male voice called out, probably to them, the start of a murder. _What even tipped him off?_ Eli thought. _The fucking cake!_ Nearly screaming loud enough to shatter their windowed cage, Nozomi sent underwater help to keep her silent. Just a hand to hold, to squeeze probably well past the point of pain. It helped so much. "First they leave the lights on, and now food? Are you kidding me? Who eats this shit while swimming?" _An idiot with a birthday!_ Eli kept her cool, reserving all screaming for inside, breath steady. He hadn't noticed them, probably and hopefully next to blind. It was going to be alright, after all, this was the start, right? The bad stuff, that's all act two. It's in the cards, right?

"I hate kids," the male voice punctuated with a thud; perfectly good, and not terribly inexpensive food, but still food, being dumped into the trash. Whatever, they could buy more cake when they were out of the pool, in their clothes, and forty-two miles from this location.

Waiting was painful, though. He shut down the lights that illuminated the pool and them, only a tiny separation keeping them hidden. All Eli could do was sit, wait for the sound of a door shutting, and stare. Stare at the moon, sky scraping buildings, the starless sky, but mostly Nozomi.

Counting the moments. Ding. A locking click, and a sounding motor. Elevator began the descent, bubbles of the longest held breath in Eli's life floated up and Nozomi just lost it, laughing so hard she swore it could summon Mr. Hates Cake at any moment. "What is so funny to you?"

"I told you, didn't I?" Nozomi chuckled,head dropping onto Eli's now exposed shoulder. The wet hair was cold to the touch, but she could stay, stay as long as she liked. "Birthday girl is gonna get away with it. It's in the cards." Eli laughed, despite not finding it particularly funny.

"Horosho." _Good._

 *****I hope you all like my Nozomi is buff headcanon I so deeply love, or my occult as a social crutch one which I also tend to believe. This whole like indoor multi-gym complex while drastically different in shape basically exists in Portland Oregon when I use to go to PSU,**

 **but more importantly! Happy birthday Savvymeme~! Sav's a real sweetheart and a good friend, it's her birthday so I decided to make her something to her interests. ;D I myself like this ship a great deal, but I really don't predict me going down this fandom hole very much, but it was super fun to write regardless!**

 **thanks also to review and possibly art (don't know if she ended up being able to make it at the time of me writing this) by Kad my good buddy and editing by my bestie LazyKatze whom I love and adore!**


End file.
